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Good question, Michael, and a courageous first bite from Emily! From where I stand a performers' (what about composers? listeners?) birthplace criterion is imprecise (what after all are the boundaries of the South? one South that transcends race, class, subregion, etc.?? -- especially if "the" South is better regarded as a state of mind or a way of being in the world than a geographical region) and essentialist. Not to mention the possibility of adoption into a family, regional musical culture, etc. -- e.g., outsider Ann Savoy adopted into what we are content to call a Cajun musical culture. Emily's notion of "sound" points to something in one's lived experience of the music that evokes Southern-ness, as the Creedence example suggests. And that strikes me as a more promising direction, in the same way as my old claim that "down-home" blues works better than "country" blues to evoke the feeling of that musical experience. Best to all, Jeff Titon
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